A refrigerator is an electric appliance configured to refrigerate or freeze stored goods in a storage space (e.g., refrigerate objects or freeze objects) through a cycle for compressing, condensing, expanding and evaporating refrigerant. For example, a refrigerator is an electric appliance including a storage space and a heat exchanger for absorbing heat from internal air of the storage space, so as to keep the temperature of the stored goods stored in the storage space below a room temperature.
A volume of the storage space may be limited by a storage capacity preset in the refrigerator and it is one of important issues to consider to efficiently utilize the storage space when designing a refrigerator.
For an efficient use of the storage space, a predetermined space for accommodating stored goods may be provided in the refrigerator, and a drawer retractable from the storage space or a rack for supporting stored goods may be provided.
Considering the volumes of the stored goods, the storage space provided in the refrigerator may be partitioned by a drawer and a rack. Accordingly, the number or volume of the storage units (e.g., the rack or drawers) installable in the storage space, of which maximum volume is set according to the capacity of the refrigerator, may be limited.
In some examples, to add a new storage device to the storage space of the refrigerator, some of the drawers or racks or the volume of the drawer or a gap between the racks or the rack and the drawer may need to be reduced. In some case, some of the storage space has to be used as the space for installing a new storage device or unit.
In some examples, if the design is changed to reduce the volume or number of the drawers or racks to install a new storage device, a storage space intended to store goods therein in design may fail to store the goods and efficiency of the storage space might be rather deteriorated.
In some cases, such design change (e.g., reducing the volume or number of the drawers or racks) is not much different from designing new the storage space. Accordingly, it may be difficult to add a new storage device or unit to the refrigerator while keeping the preset volume of the storage space.
In some examples, a storage device door may be provided in the storage device to partition an internal space of the storage compartment into several spaces. The door may be provided to selectively open the storage device. However, it may require room for opening and closing of the door. For example, the space required for the door to move might also cause another problem of the reduced storage space.